Macedonia Press Review – September 17, 2012

Church prayer, a novelty for start of the academic year. Government presses on EU agenda.

Skopje

DNEVNIK

Macedonia’s biggest state run St. Cyril and Methodius University yesterday started the new academic year with a church prayer and a harsh criticism for the atheists. Such event takes place for the first time in the history of the university. The head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Stefan, criticized those who deemed the prayer ceremony controversial and against the secular principle of the state. He said that scientists should not forget that people like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Nikola Tesla were religious and thanked god for their achievements. Very few professors and students joined the rector and the deans at the ceremony.

UTRINSKI VESNIK

Now is not the time for elections due to the European agenda that the country has to meet, was the conclusion of the Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his government partner Ali Ahmeti of the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI the daily finds out. According to unnamed sources in the DUI, the two met last week in secret to try to amend the ongoing political crisis between their parties. As a result of this deal, the decriminalization of libel and the changes in the electoral laws have been submitted in to parliament procedure, to match the time ahead of the visit of the EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele this Monday. Fuele is coming to inspect Macedonian reforms ahead of the EC annual progress report set to be published in October. The two parties are in a bitter dispute over an army law that was put forward by Gruevski’s VMRO DPMNE and opposed by the DUI.

Balkan Insight has not verified the reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.

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